| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ade |
Posted - 26/03/2010 : 00:46:53
Rather than keeping posting in introductions I figured I would start a sort of journal thread in here about Froggy, our young White's tree frog.
I'll start by describing the equipment we have:-
45x45x45cm Exo Terra terrarium
14 watt Reptile One heat matt
Lucky Reptile Thermo Control II
Exo Terra dial thermometer
Exo Terra dial hygrometer
Orchid bark substrate (we will be replacing this with coco husk type substrate soon, as Froggy is nearing a size where he/she could possibly ingest this)
Large piece of cork bark for a vertical hide placed from top back left corner to bottom front right corner (I want to replace this with a nice wood branch, Froggy doesn't seem keen on walking on the bark)
Turtle dock currently in there as a horizontal hide
Lighting is currently a 3 x 8watt T5 unit made by Boyu. It's a small overtank unit intended for nano fish tanks, containing 3 6,500 kelvin tubes.
When we first set it up we were using the dried sphagnum moss that comes in bricks (re hydrated naturally. lol), however I soon discovered that this can be really bad for frogs, so have removed most of it and I am using moss from my shrimp tanks in there (I have all sorts of mosses, Xmas, Java, Creeping, spiky, willow, dwarf riccia (ok that's a liverwort, but heh), phoenix... it grows VERY fast for me, so even when it dies it's no real problem). I also have an order in for a frog moss pack and a creeping ficus (not sure how well that will stand up to a White's but I wanted to give it a go.).
Feeding wise I started out only having mini mealworms, and Froggy was eating about 3 every 2-3 days. Now however I finally have crickets, and Froggy has become a LOT more hungry. They are quite small crickets but he ate about 4 earlier, along with 3 mini mealworms. He WONT be getting fed that much as a matter of habit. lol We were concerned he hadn't been eating well, as until today he had been hiding constantly under the turtle dock. He has now taken up residence on top of the background, and is most definitely eating, too much if we let him.  He's learned that the planting tweezers (I ended up with 2 sets of these, so 1 pair have been pressed into service for feeding Froggy) mean food, and will snatch at ANYTHING we push towards him with them! I accidentally squished a cricket earlier whilst trying to catch it, no bother for Froggy as the minute I pushed it towards him with the tweezers nom, it was gone! I can see now where White's get their reputations for been greedy from! He was quite skinny when we got him (very young, definitely underfed, looked like a green dart frog in shape) so I was pleased to see that today he has the more rounded shape you expect of a White's.  No supplements yet, but the crickets had been fed since yesterday on lettuce, cabbage and some apple. We have now also given the mini meal worms some Chinese leaf, which they have devoured at speed! Gotta keep an eye on my wife though, she's a bit of an overfeeder if I don't watch her, even the crickets and mealworms are at risk of becoming rather overfed. I have some Sandfire Superfoods cricket food on it's way to me (which I believe is a good one) for occasional feeding to the crickets, as well as some Komodo Amphibian insect dusting powder and Komodo Calcium plus vitamins dusting powder ordered. I believe though that I only need to lightly dust about 1 or 2 feeds per week with one of these? I ordered both so I could see what was in them. lol
The lighting is also getting replaced. Also on order I have an ExoTerra Compact double hood, 26 watt Exo Terra ReptiGlo 2 and ReptiGlo 5 bulbs to go into this. I know that books etc say that White's don't need the UVB, however I have also read that opinion is increasing that it is beneficial for them, hence the 5, and the 2 should help with future live plant growth and viewing.
Also on order we have 3 more White's tree frogs. Hopefully they aren't tiny when they arrive, when I ordered them it wouldn't have mattered as much, but Froggy has grown since, he/she is about 25% larger now than when we bought him/her. I have also come to learn that our 45x45x45 terrarium would be better suited to 1 pair rather than 2, however we are quite willing to upgrade it to something larger, clean it out thoroughly and then reuse it for perhaps a pair of Vietnamese blue tree frogs. We plan to put some garage shelving in our 'multi purpose' room (it's supposed to be a dining room, but we need storage and space for our critters more, we're used to eating using trays sat on our laps. lol), so space wont be so much of a problem as it was when I bought the terrarium last week.
Now to a question. The heat mat is a 14 watt Reptile One model, attached to a Lucky Reptile Thermo Control II thermostat which doubles as a thermometer, and backed up with an Exo Terra dial thermometer. The care sheet here says minimum temperature of 25 degrees Celsius is advised for these frogs, and I have the Thermo Control II set to 27 degrees Celsius, however it NEVER reaches this temperature, either on the Thermo Control II or the thermometer, the most it reaches is 26 degrees, and that is ONLY with all 3 tubes turned on so that it's getting heat from the lighting, and it drops to about 23.8 to 24 degrees Celsius at night. As such, I am pretty sure that the heat mat isn't up to the task, but basically I am looking for confirmation that I need to replace this? Froggy is currently perching RIGHT in front of where the heat mat is stuck to the back of the viv, suggesting that things really aren't warm enough in there far enough into the viv. I am thinking of ordering a 20 watt Habistat mat (17 inches by 11 inches), what do you folks reckon? At the end of the day it will be on a thermostat, so the risk of overheating his viv is much lower than the risk we currently have of under-heating it, and I have read good things about the Habistat mats.
Anyway, if anybody has any thoughts on any of this, please do feel free to post them. I happily admit that amphibians are new to me, and I am happy to learn. I'm a fast learner though, so try to keep up.
Ade
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ade |
Posted - 05/05/2010 : 11:23:14
Hoppety croaks good night between 9 and 10 am, and then croaks good morning between 10 pm and 11 pm. lol He also croaks if he hears the phone...... Dunno why.
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 29/04/2010 : 15:52:01
Cliff and Richard only croak properly when they are being stood on by the over. I think it's their way of saying 'Gerrr'off!' |
| Ade |
Posted - 29/04/2010 : 08:46:16
Froggy and Hippety don't like sharing at all. lol If they decide another frog got a cricket or hopper that they had decided was theirs they will bite that frog. lol Good job they don't have teeth. ;)
Oh and we now know Hoppety is a male, he was spotted calling for the first time last night. :) Froggy has croaked before now (usually when food has been involved or Hoppety has walked on him/her), but it was much weaker and quieter, so can't be sure of the sex of Froggy or Hippety yet, fingers crossed for female but with my luck we'll have 3 males. :P
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 27/04/2010 : 05:20:39
I see one of yours doesn't like to share is dinner either
Helvetica and Garamond are always fighting over food too. It's weird because we are used to watching the toads (Cliff and Richard) and they always take it in turns to eat. So civilised  |
| Ade |
Posted - 24/04/2010 : 21:47:38
One video as promised: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52AI2KD3Se8. Only just uploaded, so if it wont work straight away, please try again later. :)
Ade |
| Ade |
Posted - 24/04/2010 : 21:17:13
Not much to say really.
Still waiting for the mantella book. The tropical springtails have reproduced in a big way to say the least, frog poops tend to vanish rather quickly because of this. :)
All 3 frogs have grown lots, and the UV lighting seems to have had an impact on colour, with them all becoming a much darker green which sometimes has a hint of khaki to it. I've also purchased some pure calcium dust to stagger with the other dusts, as with the UV I don't believe I need to supplement vitamins each and every time I dust (twice a week). I took a vid of them the other night when feeding them, I'll get this up on YouTube soon, it's very amusing. ;)
The plants in the terrarium are doing VERY well, even the pothos has picked up nicely, as have the inch plant cuttings. I am quite surprised that the creeping ficus is doing very well too, as my reading around re this plant a lot of folks seem to have problems growing this plant in terrariums. It's a very pretty plant, and one I would recommend to anybody looking for a low growing ground cover plant (could be why mine is doing well, as I think most folks try to grow it as a climber, but I took a hint from the word creeping in it's name and planted it as ground cover. lol).
Anyway, all going well.
Ade |
| Ade |
Posted - 17/04/2010 : 21:22:27
My wife did a bit of gardening earlier, it seems that we DO have woodlice. lol We also have yellow meadow ants, millipedes, centipedes.....
Oh, and tons of dandelions. The plan is though to get them growing in a controlled manner (a container) rather than all over the place. ;) I can also make sure no chemicals get on them that way.
The frogs are doing really well! They're a lot more active since we starting giving them the occasional feed of hoppers! They really enjoy these, especially the hunt. In fact we don't feed hoppers or crickets in containers any more, we just set them loose and let the frogs hunt for them. They are very good at it, and seem to really enjoy it.
Oh, and next on the list of phibs I want to try:-
Bronze mantellas
Oriental fire bellied toads
Got a book about mantellas on order, and I'm doing lots of research over the internet on both. I want to see if the piece of high quality acrylic I have would fit across the middle of a 45 cms terrarium. If so, it will be perfect for using to create a 50/50 toad habitat, I have plenty of reefscape resin (expensive milliput) and aquarium silicon.  I prefer terrariums to fish tanks, they're lighter and much easier to work in. My wife wants to do another flush system though (large 'gravel' with coco husk on top and stones to hold it back)....
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 16/04/2010 : 19:03:15
I also like it when hobbies overlap- I've spent all day in the garden in the sun. This morning I was tending the veg patch and this afternoon I was making my baby bath watering hole 
My hands are rough now though.
Can't believe you are going to grow your own dandelions- we can't get rid of all ours in the garden. Even with a colony of cockroaches that love them Luckily my mate has just bought two tortoises so might get rid of a few more by the bag full next time I see her. |
| Ade |
Posted - 14/04/2010 : 11:48:59
We don't have woodlice in our garden, that I know of. ;) We're planning though once the composter is running properly to get some worms and start a wormery in there as an extra source of food. I should also be getting the replacement tropical dwarf woodlice soon. The tropical springtails are doing really well in the terrarium, they seem to appreciate the natural approach as it allows them to access the water and moist areas easily.
I'm definitely a believer in variety, even us humans get bored with the same old food, then there is the nutritional value of variety as well. Some folks are shocked when they find out how many different shrimp foods I keep in. lol So at the moment we're feeding a mixed diet of crickets, small hoppers and small mealworms as an occasional treat due to their high fat content. All get gutloaded first with mainly carrot and dandelions, and in the case of the crickets some Superfoods cricket food every now and then.
The frogs had small hoppers again last night, and polished off another full container of them! They seem to thoroughly enjoy hunting them. :) We don't bother putting them in a bowl, they're too jumpy, so we just put the tub in the terrarium and open it. Before you know it they are bouncing around the terrarium and we can remove the tub. Then we get to watch the frogs go psycho on the hoppers, even lazy froggy seriously chowed down on them last night. They really seem to enjoy the excitement of hunting their food, sneaking up on them and then WHAM get in my belly. lol
Once the composter is up and running we will hopefully be able to add some small worms to the rotation as well. We have a LOT of work to do on the garden, we're currently waiting for the tools I ordered to be delivered though. Can't do that much with a lawn mower and a lawn edging tool. ;) Once the fork and spade arrive we can get the beds and borders sorted, and will possibly find some juicy worms they can have as a treat whilst doing this. We plan to use organic techniques as much as possible. Unfortunately though I don't think much has been done with these gardens in a LONG time. So some chemical usage is inevitable, eg. we have a HUGE mass of moss at one end of the lawn that needs killing and reseeding. We're planning to plant some dandelions in containers though, these at least we can keep totally organic, whilst also reducing the spread of what is at the end of the day considered a weed. lol The nettle patch has to go though. Sure they make excellent wine and shrimp food, but who wants nettles in their garden? ;) We're planning a vegetable patch anyway, so I'll probably grow a few good gutloading greens there.
I do like it when hobbies overlap. :) I'm quite sure the frogs would enjoy some dwarf shrimp if they got the chance as well, but that's not about to happen, they're too valuable to use as live food, even if they do have a very high calcium content. :P lol
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 14/04/2010 : 11:04:32
Great minds must really think alike then
It is always good to give a variety. Luckily for us the woodlice are back out of hibernation in the garden so they are useful to add |
| Ade |
Posted - 13/04/2010 : 18:00:53
Now there is a coincidence. lol
We've actually just this morning decided on bronze mantellas. lol I've ordered a book about them, so I can do a bit more research on top of what I have already done via the internet. It seems that we even already have perfect mantella tadpole food, in the form of about 5 different types of shrimp food, including a powdered one made for feeding baby shrimp. ;) Yet again, my other hobby is complementing this one perfectly. :D
Oh, and we ran out of crickets yesterday, all the nearby store had was small hoppers, so gave these a try. Uhm, BLAM they were all gone! 3 frogs finished off an entire tube in the space of a few minutes... Had to buy 2 more tubs, as I've ordered 1000s small crickets but these may be a while yet. The hoppers went down better than the crickets though in all honesty, so it's one more food that I can use to vary their diet with.
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 13/04/2010 : 14:28:44
I think Lewy was contemplating getting some Mantellas instead of darts. Still bright looking frogs, but a little bit bigger so easier to keep in food stuffs |
| Ade |
Posted - 10/04/2010 : 12:36:19
As far as I know Dracena are safe, the leaves aren't serrated and they're sturdy plants. I chose not to use the one we have as it's just too big. lol
I was shocked they shipped as well (2 different companies), especially as the frogs had been on order for at least 2 weeks before they were sent. The woodlice company are sending replacements once they have stock.
Yup I did some research and found the same about the dart frogs, which was pleasing, now I just have my wife resisting because of the high price tags. lol I believe that flightless fruitflys and springtails make good first foods, if I do set up for darts I'll be setting up long before we get them, giving springtails etc to get settled in and multiplying for a nice natural food supply, I do this with shrimp as well as baby shrimp can be difficult to feed.
All that said, there are still lots of tree frog species that I really like.... lol
Ade |
| Kazerella |
Posted - 10/04/2010 : 10:19:20
Poor frog and woodlice - I wonder why they sent it on such a cold day. Most suppliers wouldn't risk it.
I thought Dracena was a safe plant, but not 100% sure now you've put doubt in my mind Will have to have a look in my notes.
Poison darts aren't poisonous in captivity. They get their toxins from the ants and insects they eat in the rainforest, so captive frogs don't secrete the same poisons. They are difficult to keep in micro-foods though |
| Ade |
Posted - 02/04/2010 : 12:10:09
Unfortunatley I don't currently have the space or equipment for quarantining new stock. Definitely can't do it in a different room, that's the only room where I can keep anything like this, the rest of the house is full of aquariums. lol Once the shelving is up I may be able to set up a terrarium for quarantine, but it is going to have to be in the same room by necessity. My wife sees the White's as hers, but no way will she allow a terrarium outside the 'animal room'. 4 children and 2 adults in a 3 bedroom house doesn't leave a lot of space. ;)
We have a Dunelm nearby yes, however I don't like how that wood looks. ;)
Ade |
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